Service

The petition and parenting plan are hand delivered to your spouse, along with a summons giving them 30 days to respond.

In the days of knights, when you were sued, you were confined at the jail until trial. It was pretty clear that the court had jurisdiction to try you when your address was cell 27. Now we accept the fact that we could have arrested you if we get close enough to hand you papers.

Today it has become common to use private process servers. These are individuals approved by the court to serve process. Because you pay them, they are a bit more dilligent in getting things rolling. This is an additional cost in addition to your fees.